Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Atlantic Rim
Posts: 570

There are three of four sub-$200 scanners that include 35mm slide and negative adapters. Has anyone ever used one? I have worked with a number of cheap scanners and found each to be satisfactory to my purposes. Before I buy a new model with a slide adapter I was curious as to whether or not these things actually work, or if they are only "novelty" quality. Purely subjective feedback is encouraged!

Please let me know if you have any first-hand experience, and which scanner model you own. I am not, however, in the market for an $800+ unit.

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

It depends on what you want to use the final scans of the slides for.

If you are talking professional 1200 dpi four color offset, then, no, a sub-$200 isn't going to cut it. If you just want to be able to scan some slide in for yourself, then sure, it'd work fine.

I've used a sub $200 Umax and scanning slides was OK. However, I think we ended up paying an extra $100 for the adapter anyways, so I don't know if I'd call it a sub-$200 deal.

Remember that slides need to be enlarged, so a 1200 DPI scanner isn't going to product 1200 DPI slide scans unless you are happy with 1" images.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Atlantic Rim
Posts: 570

Thoughts Appreciated

Thanks Homer. My point was, essentially, if I had a 35mm slide in one hand, and a photograph of the same image in the other, and I used the slide adapter for one scan and simply scanned the photo, what would the comparison be between the two (at something reasonable like 300 dpi)? Will the scan of the photo be perceptably better, and if so, how much (your purely subjective analysis welcome)?